Greece will need further measures: report

Greece will need to take further action in 2011 and 2012 to repair its public finances, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said in an interview on Thursday.

The extra austerity measures announced by the Greek government are sufficient for 2010 providing they are applied fully, Rehn told Italy's daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.

But further on, in 2011 and 2012, further measures will be necessary for Greece... for medium-term consolidation, he was quoted as saying.

Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said on Thursday that an extra savings package would allow his government to achieve its 2010 budget target.

Rehn, who earlier this week led an EU delegation to Greece, said it was important that the new measures, which were announced on Wednesday, helped Greece -- and by extension the whole euro zone - regain greater stability.

He said the euro zone would if necessary ... carry out coordinated action to guarantee (Greece's) stability ... We have the resources to do so.

Asked if this implied a bailout by the European Union, Rehn said: We are not speaking about this today. Greece has restarted well, he said.

Rehn said there are other countries in both the South and the North of Europe that have serious problems.

The aim of all this is precisely to avoid a spill-over effect ... from one country to another, he said.

He said responsibility for Greece lay with the EU rather than the European Central Bank or the International Monetary Fund.

Greece has said it might look to the IMF for a rescue package if the EU failed to provide support.

Rehn said there were lessons to be learnt from the crisis on the importance of financial monitoring in the euro zone. If necessary we could send not just recommendations to the member states but actual warnings, he said.